Tony Hawk interview
HUCK catches up with skateboarding's tour de force ahead of his eleventh video game launch to try and distinguish the man from the avatar.
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Will the real Tony Hawk please stand up? The guy's a shape shifter. Not only is he the world's most famous skateboarder and CEO of a multi-national product enterprise, he's a virtual skin there to be grafted for your video game-playing pleasure. He revolutionised vert skateboarding, was featured on The Simpsons and even rolled through the corridors of the White House.
But he's also a husband, a dad and a brother; he's an overgrown kid in skate shoes and a hoody who started his skateboarding career in the now legendary Bones Brigade; and he's a San Diegan, born and bred.
So what lies beneath the web of narratives that surround the guy nicknamed 'Birdman'? What happens to your sense of identity when you are constantly mistaken for a fictional character?
HUCK caught up with the 42-year-old Hawk, before the launch of his eleventh video game title Tony Hawk: SHRED, to see if this Peter Pan-esque superstar has managed to sew himself to his shadow.
HUCK: How involved were you in the creation of Tony Hawk: SHRED?
Tony Hawk: Very much so. Especially since the first game I did with Robomodo [game developers] was Tony Hawk: RIDE [in 2009] so we kind of had to start from scratch, as opposed to Neversoft [developers of the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series] who I’d worked with for a long time. With them it wasn’t like I had to explain the nuances of how tricks work and stuff like that. They got skateboarding, after working on it for ten years. But with Robo, we had to start from scratch because we wanted to build the game around the controller. So as the controls got tighter and we added snowboarding as well, I had to be really hands on with the game as it was being developed. So I would play it every couple of weeks when they would send me a new version of it.
Why did you include snowboarding?
When I brought the idea to Activision to make a board-based game I always thought that the board could be used for more than just skateboarding. For me, that was the masterplan.
Do you feel like those worlds are crossing over more now?
Well, I feel like the sensibilities and ideas that started snowboarding were the same as the ones that started skateboarding and so I believe there was much more crossover in the beginning. Because those people [skateboarders] were used to being outcasts and so they were up for going to try something new on the mountain. Nowadays, I don’t think there’s that much rivalry necessarily but there aren’t as many people who do both so seriously.
So you think that when someone like Shaun White skateboards professionally, he is accepted by the core community?
Yeah definitely, he has the skill set. He’s incredibly talented in both and there are very few people who have even been able to make a mark in one, while being professional in another as well. He’s definitely a phenomenon in that respect. But I feel like he does bridge that gap for a lot of people to try the other sport if they’re already into one.
Do you snowboard?
I do yeah. I’ve been snowboarding since before [snowboarders] were let on the mountains.
I heard you say that some people don’t think you’re real, that you’re a video game character. To what extent do you feel that you are two people; Tony Hawk the avatar and face of skateboarding and Tony Hawk, the dad and husband, made of flesh and bone?
I don’t really feel split. I mean definitely the way I divide my time is really challenging. From being a pro skateboarder and being a responsible [laughs] father and adult. A lot of people in the industry hear the name 'Tony Hawk’ and just think of video games - that’s it - because they grew up playing one or a few of our previous titles. So that’s a weird phenomenon in my life: that people hear my name and go straight to a video game disc.
But does it feel that your name has a life of its own? Do you ever have to step back and be like, ‘Oh my God, I am Tony Hawk?’”
[Laughs] I don’t really think of it in those terms! It definitely could take on a life of its own but I feel like through all the years I’ve been involved enough so that it does represent me and I’m really proud of it. It’s not like my name got out of control.
So you don’t feel starstruck by yourself?
Ha, starstruck? No. But it is still weird for me to be recognised for doing something that no one really enjoyed when I was a kid.
And what about your kids? What do you think they make of having a super skateboarder dad?
[Laughs] Uh, they enjoy what I do. They like that it presents them with opportunities that a lot of other kids don’t get. It’s difficult because I’m really busy, and I do travel quite a bit and I’m gone, but at the same time they realise that because of what I do, and who I am, they get to go to Nickelodeon movie premieres and things like that. They enjoy those perks.
Your son Riley is an upcoming skateboarder. Would you support all your kids if they wanted to pursue skateboarding as a career?
Yeah sure. [Riley] is already doing really well for himself. He actually has his own income, for the most part. My other boys are doing other things but they’re really young. My 11-year-old plays guitar quite a bit, my nine-year-old, I don’t know, he does everything; anything dangerous.
But you think skateboarding is a positive direction for kids?
Absolutely yeah. Beyond trying to make a career out of it, it really teaches kids self-confidence, that maybe they haven’t found elsewhere, and a sense of their own style and creativity. Whereas other sports maybe tell them, ‘this is the only way you’re allowed to do it, or you should do it', with skateboarding it’s your own voice and your own canvas to do whatever you want to do and still be accepted. Not everybody has to make a career out of it, but it can teach you a lot.
Would you be up for skateboarding going into the Olympics?
I don’t think it would change anything in terms of how people view skating. I could go either way with it, but I think it would definitely help the global recognition of skating. But at the same time, at this point skating is much more popular than many Olympic sports so I feel like the Olympics need skateboarding more than it needs them. They need that ‘cool’ factor in their summer games like they have with snowboarding in their winter games. They really do. It’s just a matter of them pulling in and bringing some youth to the programme. And they could take skateboarding to some places where it may not even be understood yet.
You’re like the CEO of the Tony Hawk enterprise. You’re a businessman but you ain’t no suit. Do you think skateboarders remain more in tune with their sense of youth?
I think definitely skating has kept me youthful and in shape. The fact that I never quit doing it is my only secret as to how I can keep doing it at my age. But also there is a sort of new generation of parents, mostly fathers, who are picking up their skateboards again – they used to do it when they were younger and now they’re skating with their kids. I’m not trying to fool anyone, for sure, I am getting older and I’m not up for taking the same risks that I used to. But at the same time I still have most of my skill set and I can still justify being a pro skater.
You’ve been on The Simpsons. You’ve been to the White House. You’ve been immortalised in films, books, TV programmes, magazines and videos. But is there anything left for you to do that could still blow your mind?
The only thing I never got to do which I never really thought was possible was to take my HuckJam tour [international]. It’s an action sports tour including skateboarding, BMX and motocross, and it’s more about those sports as entertainment as opposed to competition. We did a lot of choreography and stuff like that. I would really like to take that tour international. We’ve only ever done it in the US. And I think it would be great in Europe. I think it would be great in Australia. Quiksilver did a great job of The Tony Hawk Show. We got great crowds but I feel like there’s more that I could show them.
Do you ever get scared or intimidated?
[Laughs] Yeah! When I see the whole big air, mega ramp in vert. It’s definitely something I’ve done and I’ve tried but the stakes are so high in that, it really scares me. I know when something goes wrong there, it goes tragically wrong. And we’ve seen that happen. That stuff scares me. When you start getting a sense of confidence in that, it feels like your invincible and I know that we’re not.
How do you feel that so many kids look up to you?
I don’t really think of it in those terms. I just want to be a role model for my own kids. And if I am to other kids then I’m happy. But I don’t push it where I have to put out a façade of who I am.
What inspires you?
Anything new, especially in skating. A new technique or a new trick. That’s what’s always kept me coming back to skating. So I guess in a larger sense, anyone who’s trying something new for the sake of progression. Even if it seems risky or completely different. I appreciate that and I appreciate those efforts. And that’s really how I got to where I am, how I got so far.
Tony Hawk: SHRED is out on October 29 on PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii.
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Tony Hawk interview (text) by Shelley Jones is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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